This invention is directed towards a process and apparatus for providing apparel hooks for use in packaging clothes.
Apparel hooks are widely used in the apparel industry to package socks as well as other items for hanging hook displays. Typically, hooks are supplied to the apparel industry in bulk and must be manually withdrawn from the bulk supply and inserted over the item in preparation for shipping and retail display.
Traditionally, the bulk supply of clip hooks has been necessary because there has been no reliable process for supplying hooks in an organized and useful orientation and no apparatus exists for dispensing organized hooks. The bulk supply of hooks has several disadvantages. One, labor costs are increased because of the handling steps of selecting and separating a single hook from a bulk supply of hooks. Further, hooks tend to become entangled which requires additional separating efforts. In addition, bulk supplied hooks are typically deposited upon work tables where workers manually separate and install the hooks. Hooks often become separated and strewn on the work place floor where they constitute both a work hazard as well as a hinderance to wheeled carts used to transport inventory.
Further, the repetitive motion of continuously selecting and separating hooks from the bulk supply is a labor intensive step and may be a contributing factor in work related metacarpal syndrome. As a result, there is room for improvement in furnishing an improved hook dispensing apparatus and method of organizing the hooks which addresses the limitations of the prior art.